Singlish

Uncommon card · No. 147082

Singlish (a portmanteau of Singapore and English), formally known as Colloquial Singaporean English (CSE) or Singapore Colloquial English (SCE), is an English-based contact language originating in Singapore, and an informal register of Singapore English used between Singaporeans in colloquial contexts. It linguistically resembles a creole, but its status as a creole is academically disputed. Singlish arose out of contact between speakers of different languages, mainly comprising different English varieties, different Malay varieties such as Baba Malay and Bazaar Malay, and different Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Teochew. Singlish and Standard Singapore English were modelled by academics as part of a creole continuum from 1975 to 1989, but were treated distinctly from 1990 as diglossia, with speakers employing code-switching. As opposed to the standard variety, Singlish is mostly used in informal situations. Driven by a shared history and close geography, Manglish...

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